


Behind The Issue Desk

by liseuse



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-15
Updated: 2010-12-15
Packaged: 2017-10-18 09:28:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/187444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/liseuse/pseuds/liseuse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It takes books and libraries for Padma's eyes to open.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behind The Issue Desk

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/a_shadow_there/profile)[**a_shadow_there**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/a_shadow_there/) in the informal HP Femslash Exchange. Many thanks go to [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/magnetic_pole/profile)[**magnetic_pole**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/magnetic_pole/) and [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/wildestranger/profile)[**wildestranger**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/wildestranger/) for their beta skills. All mistakes, obviously, belong to me.

Behind The Issue Desk

Padma is sixteen years old when she first notices Luna. Really notices her, anyway, Luna has always been there, a member of her house, living in Ravenclaw Tower, sitting at the Ravenclaw table. Padma vaguely remembers cheering for Luna when she was sorted into Ravenclaw, but she doesn’t remember anything much beyond that. Until she is sixteen and sitting in the library, puzzling over Arithmancy and wishing Hogwarts offered Geodivination instead. It is then that she looks up and sees Luna, her head in some giant tome, and twirling a quill between her fingers. This is an entirely different Luna. She isn’t twirling from place to place or saying something that causes laughter. She looks absorbed and captivated.

It isn’t, however, until after the war that Padma has time to notice Luna again. It feels as if the past few years have gone by in a blur of family worries, school, and war. The war itself had ended quickly, but the aftereffects took forever to fade. They would never disappear, completely, Padma realised, as she turned her head left, and then right, to watch the traffic and then cast an almost undetectable warning spell. Even crossing the road to the British Library was never going to feel completely safe again. The interior of the library was an entirely different matter. At dinner a few nights ago, Parvati had raised the idea that perhaps her affection for the interior of libraries was an entirely learned behaviour. Parvati did not share it, but had more of a love for battered old houses and roaring fires. The houses they had been sorted into had, in Parvati’s mind, a lot to answer for when it came to their respective feelings about how rooms should be decorated. Padma had smiled to herself, nodded, and pretended to agree. She wasn’t sure how to tell Parvati that her love for the British Library had less to do with her affection for books and wood and the smell of learning than it had to do with the sight of Luna Lovegood behind the issues desk in the Magical Collection. There was still a thrill, certainly, involved in tapping her wand three times on the left shoulder of the statue of Isaac Newton and watching the Magical Collection Building shimmer out of nowhere. That thrill had nothing in comparison with the flip of Padma’s stomach every time she saw Luna behind the counter.

“Padma.” Luna smiled. “I thought it was about time we saw you again.”

Padma jumped a little. “You keep track of everyone’s visits?”

“Oh. No.” Luna said. “It’s just that yours always seem to coincide with the Cowslip harvest. As if you come to life with the gilly-sprite at the same time as they do.”

“As far as I’m aware,” Padma said with a grin in her voice, “I don’t actually have much in common with Cowslip.”

Luna looked at her searchingly. “Oh, I don’t know. There’s a certain air of flight and potential danger in there. Look, it’s nearly time for someone to relieve me of my duties. Would you like to get a drink? We can brave the muggle café or the Happening Harpy is just around the corner.”

“I’m really sorry,” Padma said, surprising herself with how much she meant it, “but I can’t right now. I’m supposed to meet Pansy in the Collection. We’re editing a volume of old town-planning documents that record the disappearance from view of Pureblood houses. This is the only day we both have free.”

Luna tipped her head to one side. “Oh. In that case, how about eight o’clock this evening? I know Pansy will be at home with Hermione by then.”

Padma hoisted her bag back onto her shoulder and nodded. “That would be lovely. I’ll see you then, Luna.”

\--

Padma spent all morning sighing wistfully and gazing into the distance, until Pansy threatened to turn her toes into cabbages if she didn’t pay some attention. Somehow that did the trick and she focused back on the work. A little too well, it seemed, because the next thing she knew the clock was chiming eight, and both she and Pansy were looking up in alarm.

“Shit!” they both exclaimed and started shoving quills and parchment into their bags. Pansy waved frantically from the fireplace as she firecalled Marchmain Place, and Padma dropped the shelving charm on the scrolls they were done with, and the safety charm on the rest. She tugged her coat on, with oddly clumsy fingers, and reminded herself about the importance of breathing. Closing her eyes and tilting her chin upwards, she prepared to disapparate.

“I am so so sorry, Luna.” Padma said as she shimmied between two wizards who she vaguely recognised as working in Magical Sports and sat down on the spare stool at Luna’s table. “Pansy and I got carried away with work, and the next thing we knew it was eight o’clock and we were both late.” Padma realised that she was blithering and stopped with an embarrassed exhale. “Anyway. I’m glad you’re still here.”

Luna looked at her and then smiled. “Well, you seem to be credibly out of breath, and those inkstains on your fingers are relatively young, so I suppose I have to believe the account given to me of the reasons for your lateness. Buy me a cocktail to make it up to me?” As she asked the last Luna lifted her glass to her lips and delicately caught the last drop of liquid on the tip of her tongue. “They do a divine Elderflower Gimlet.”

\--

Several Elderflower Gimlets later Padma and Luna stood outside the Harpy. Luna had a slouchy wool hat on, and it made her look like she did when they were in school.

“Thank you for a lovely evening, Miss Patil.” Luna dropped a small curtsey, and bit her lip as she smiled.

“You are more than welcome, Miss Lovegood.” Padma adjusted her scarf, and stepped as subtly as she could a little closer to Luna. “I would suggest that we carry on the evening, but I have to be back in the office in the morning.”

Luna tipped her head down and looked up at Padma through her eyelashes. “Looks like we’ll have to end it here then. Which is a pity. I was enjoying myself.” She stepped forward so that she was nearly flush with Padma and took Padma’s right hand. Holding it to her lips, she kissed the blue inkstain on Padma’s middle finger. Then she stood on her tiptoes so that she could dart a kiss to Padma’s lips.

Padma smiled into the kiss and slipped a hand up so it was pressed against Luna’s cheek. She could feel Luna’s eyelashes flickering against her fingertips and the rhythm of Luna’s blood under the ball of her thumb. They broke the kiss, and Padma just had time to step back before Luna disapparated in the glimmer of the streetlamp.


End file.
